THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 31, 1996 TAG: 9605310045
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Teenspeak
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 50 lines
A MICHIGAN JUDGE recently fined the parents of a 16-year-old boy several thousand dollars for burglaries the youth committed. A South Carolina judge ordered that a 15-year-old girl found guilty of shoplifting and breaking into a house be tethered to her parents with a 2-foot-cord. In Oregon, the father of a 16-year-old caught smoking was fined $100 for not properly supervising the boy.
As Americans try to put the brakes on an epidemic of teen violence and crime in the 1990s, legislatures and the courts have begun taking a different route - punishing parents for the wrongs of their children.
Is this such a good idea? Well, that depends, students at Maury High told Teenspeak.
The six teens interviewed said there's no question that moms and dads are responsible for teaching children right from wrong.
``You see children yelling and cursing at teachers and you see right there that somehow, their parents have failed,'' said senior Catherine Schweitzer, 18. ``A lot of problem with crime today is that people just don't have the moral values. Parents should teach children at an early age that violence and cheating and lying are wrong.''
Even so, the students were hesitant to assign blame.
``You can't hold a parent responsible for a kid who won't listen,'' said senior Taylor Blair, 18. ``Regardless of what parents may tell you, you're going to realize murdering someone is wrong.''
Children can't dodge responsibility, they said: ``Once you hit 12 or 13, you know the difference between right and wrong,'' said sophomore Martine Green.
Parents have a lot of competition for their children's attention - TV that glorifies sex and violence, peer pressure to try drugs and alcohol. But parents, they said, need to do a better job of watching for warning signs that their children are having problems. And society needs to provide parents with more support.
``Somehow a value system has to be taught,'' said senior Amie Weisberg, 18.
``The parent and child need to come to some sort of understanding,'' said junior Anne Magnan. ``Somehow something is wrong with children who commit crimes - somehow something wasn't established with that child.''
The teens agreed that there are cases in which parents should be punished alongside their children. One student recalled a Reader's Digest article that detailed how a mother taught her four children to shoplift.
``Some parents aren't going to tell them that hurting people is wrong,'' Anne said. ``Children are usually a reflection of their parents whether they like it or not.'' by CNB